Amanda Knox to learn murder appeal fate

The appeal has centred on a review of DNA evidence

Amanda Knox is waiting to hear whether she will be cleared of murdering British student Meredith Kercher, after an 11-month appeal.

Knox, 24, and Raffaele Sollecito, 27, are challenging their convictions for killing Miss Kercher, 21, from south London, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.

The verdict is expected on Monday after final statements from the pair, who were jailed for 26 and 25 years.

Prosecutors have said they will appeal if the verdict is overturned.

The appeal case has centred on a review of DNA evidence on a kitchen knife, thought to be the murder weapon, which indicated it was flawed.

But prosecutors called for the sentences to be increased to life terms, saying there was also considerable circumstantial evidence putting the ex-lovers at the scene of the killing.

Final statements

The trial has heard some colourful phrases used to describe Knox, with one lawyer comparing the American to Who Framed Roger Rabbit cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, and another to a witch.

Carlo Pacelli, who represents Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, who Knox originally accused of the murder - she says under pressure from the police - said she had a split personality.

One side was "angelic, good, compassionate, and in some ways even saintly", but the other side was "Lucifer-like, demonic, satanic, diabolic" and "longs to live out borderline extreme behaviour", he said.

The jury, which comprises two judges and six members of the public, will retire to consider its verdict after the statements.

If the conviction is upheld, the pair can appeal for a final time at Italy's highest appeals court.

Knox's family have said they will take her back to Seattle immediately if it is overturned, despite prosecutors vowing to appeal.

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, had been sharing a cottage with Knox during an exchange year abroad from Leeds University.

Prosecutors says she was killed in a brutal sex game which had gone wrong. Her throat had been slit and she had been sexually assaulted.

Miss Kercher's family have said they feel the true victim has been "completely forgotten", with the media's focus on Knox.

In a recent interview on Italian television, her sister Stephanie said: "In these four years, Meredith has been completely forgotten. But we need to find justice for her, we need to find the truth for her."

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while her former Italian boyfriend Sollecito was given 25 years. Both deny any wrongdoing.

A third person - Rudy Guede, 21 - was also convicted of Miss Kercher's murder in a separate trial and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

His conviction was upheld on appeal but reduced to 16 years.

Meredith Kercher's family feel the true victim has been forgotten

Japan's big manufacturers expect conditions to improve

Japanese carmakers have seen their production levels return to pre-quake levels

Japan's big manufacturers expect conditions to improve in the next three months, according to the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey.

The business sentiment index stood at plus two for September, up from minus nine in June, the survey showed.

Confidence was badly damaged by the March 11 earthquake, but factory output is now increasing as supply chains are restored and infrastructure rebuilt.

The survey is keenly watched and influences Japan's monetary policy.

"Manufacturers are planning a sizeable output expansion in the next few months, so we expect conditions to improve even further," Takuji Okubo of Societe Generale told the BBC.

External risks
However, despite the optimism, big firms in Japan revised down their plans for capital expenditure.

According to the survey, large businesses plan to increase capital expenditure for the current financial year by 3%, down from an earlier projection of 4.2%.
Analysts said that while things have started to improve in Japan, external factors continue to dampen spirits.

There have been concerns that the ongoing debt crisis in Europe may hurt growth in the region. At the same time, economic problems in the US have raised fears of the world's biggest economy slipping into a recession.

"The biggest concerns are external, not internal, such as the impact of Europe's debt problems on global growth," said Yutaka Shikari of Mitsubhishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

There are fears that if growth in these regions slows, it would have an impact on consumer spending and hurt demand for Japanese exports.

Analysts said that until a long-term sustainable solution was found to these issues, they are likely to impact the expansion plans of Japanese companies.

"The uncertainty over what is going to happen over the next few months seems to be hurting sentiment," Societe Generale's Mr Okubo added.

Yen factor
The uncertainty surrounding the global economic outlook has also has a big impact on the Japanese currency. Investors have been flocking to the yen, considered as a safe-haven asset in times of economic turmoil.

That has seen the Japanese currency strengthen by as much as 8% against the US dollar in the past 12 months.

It does not bode well for the Japan's export-dependent manufacturers. A strong yen not only makes their goods more expensive but also hurts profits of companies when they repatriate their foreign earnings back home.

"If you look carefully, you can see the heavy burden of a higher yen, and their profits are under pressure," said Hideo Kumano of Daiichi Life Research Institute.

According to the Tankan survey, large manufacturers said they based their business plans on the yen averaging 81.15 against the US dollar for the current financial year. It was trading close to 77 yen against the US dollar in Asia trade on Monday.

The Japanese authorities have already intervened in the currency markets this year. Last week, the Finance Ministry said it was ready to act again and could spend another 15tn yen ($196bn; £125bn) to stabilise the currency.

Filipino-American woman kidnapped in July is freed

A search was begun after Lunsmann, her son and nephew, were seized in July

A Filipino-American woman seized more than two months ago in the southern Philippines has been released, officials on Basilan island say.

Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann was freed on Sunday evening and walked to a local township.

Her American son Kevin, 14, and a Filipino nephew Romnick Jakaria, 19, seized with her, are still being held by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants.

It is not known whether a ransom was paid to secure her release.

Ms Lunsmann is "a bit weak" after her ordeal, said Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat.

"We thank God for this release," he added.

The three were kidnapped on 12 July at a resort on the island of Tictabon, where they were on holiday.

Ms Lunsmann, a 41-year-old vet, was born in the Zamboanga but was adopted by a US family and grew up in the United States.

She lives in Virginia, but has visited the southern Philippines province of Mindanao at least five times before, local police said.

Haqqani network denies killing Afghan envoy Rabbani

Siraj Haqqani said "the game which is being played by the West... is close to an end"

A key leader of the Afghan militant group, the Haqqani network, has told the BBC it was not responsible for killing Burhanuddin Rabbani, the man overseeing Taliban peace talks.

Afghan officials have linked the Haqqanis to a suicide attacker who killed Rabbani with a bomb in a turban.

The leader, Siraj Haqqani, also told BBC Pashto his network was not linked to Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI.

Mr Haqqani was giving an audio response to written questions from the BBC.

Security considerations ruled out a face-to-face interview in which the answers could be challenged, but the BBC understands that the audio response is genuine.

The questions were delivered through an intermediary, who returned with the audio response.

Siraj Haqqani is the son of group founder Jalaluddin Haqqani and has a key role in its operations.

The Haqqanis have been blamed for a series of deadly recent attacks in Kabul.

'Military council'

Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed at his home in Kabul on 20 September when meeting a man who said he was carrying an important peace message from the Taliban. The man detonated a bomb hidden in his turban.

In his interview response, Siraj Haqqani simply says: "We haven't killed Burhanuddin Rabbani and this has been said many times by the spokespersons of the Islamic Emirate."

The Islamic Emirate is the name the Taliban gave to Afghanistan when they took control in 1996.

The Taliban have said they do not wish to comment on the Rabbani killing.

Afghan investigators say the killer was a Pakistani and that the murder was plotted in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Afghan government officials have also accused the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI, of involvement, a charge Islamabad denies. Afghanistan and the US have both accused the ISI of links to the Haqqani network.

Mr Haqqani admitted the network was behind "the attack on the US embassy, Nato headquarters and other attacks" in Kabul, which he said were ordered by a "military council" and were not the work of individuals.

In relation to links to the ISI, Mr Haqqani said that during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, mujahideen fighters "had contacts with the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and other countries, but after the invasion by the Americans there have never been contacts by intelligence agencies of other countries which could be effective for us".

He said the Haqqanis "have been contacted and are being contacted by intelligence agencies of many Islamic and non-Islamic countries, including the US, asking us to leave the sacred jihad and take an important part in the current government".

Mr Haqqani said that was not his network's responsibility, but he added: "We know that their aim is not peace, they want to create tension among the Emirate's mujahideen."

He said accusations of links to the ISI were an attempt "to hide their failure and to confuse peoples' minds".

Command structure

Mr Haqqani vowed that "the game which is being played by the West... is close to an end".

He pledged loyalty to Mullah Omar, saying he "is our leader and we totally obey him".

Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed by a bomb hidden in a turban

"In every operation we get the order, planning and financial resources from the Emirate's leadership and we act accordingly," Mr Haqqani said.

He also delivered a message to the "government and people of Pakistan", telling them to be "careful of their Islamic values. They should understand that America will not let Pakistan live a peaceful life until it destroys all the wealth and values of it."

After Rabbani's death, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would no longer hold peace talks with the Taliban, but would instead focus on dialogue with Pakistan.

Mr Karzai said: "[Taliban leader] Mullah Omar doesn't have an address... their peace emissary turns out to be a killer, whom should we talk to?

"The Afghan nation asks me who's the other party that you hold talks with? My answer is, Pakistan."

Greece to miss budget deficit targets in 2011 and 2012

The Greek austerity measures are hugely unpopular and have led to a wave of strikes and protests

Greece has said its budget deficit will be cut in 2011 and 2012 but will still miss targets set by the EU and IMF.

The 2011 deficit is projected to be 8.5% of GDP, down from 10.5% in 2010 but short of the 7.6% target.

The government, which on Sunday adopted its 2012 draft budget, blamed the shortfall on deepening recession.

The figures come as inspectors from the IMF, EU and European Central Bank are in Athens to decide whether Greece should get a key bail-out instalment.

Greece needs the 8bn euros (£6.9bn; $10.9bn) instalment to avoid going bankrupt next month.

Bankruptcy would put severe pressure on the eurozone, damage European bank finances and possibly have a serious knock-on effect on the world economy.

'Unanimously approved'

The Greek finance ministry said on Sunday that its unpopular austerity measures would have to be adhered to even if the latest targets were to be met.

It said: "Three critical months remain to finish 2011, and the final estimate of 8.5% of GDP deficit can be achieved if the state mechanism and citizens respond accordingly."

It released figures for 2012's projected deficit, putting it at 6.8% of GDP, also short of the 6.5% target.

The figures came as the government met to approve Greece's draft budget for next year.

It blamed an economic contraction this year of 5.5% - rather than May's 3.8% estimate - for the failure to meet deficit targets.

The cabinet meeting also approved a measure to put 30,000 civil service staff on "labour reserve" by the end of the year.

This places them on partial pay with possible dismissal after a year.

"The labour reserve measure was approved unanimously," one deputy minister told Reuters.

This measure, along with other wage cuts and tax rises, have been part of a package intended to persuade the so called "troika" of the EU, IMF and ECB to continue with its bail-out.

The inspectors will report back to EU finance ministers soon but analysts believe they have little choice but to approve the latest tranche.

The Greek austerity measures are hugely unpopular at home and have led to a wave of strikes and protests.

Many Greeks believe the austerity measures are strangling any chance of growth.

Philippines recovers after Typhoons Nesat and Nalgae

Residents of Calumpit are expecting more water to descend on the town

Rescuers are scrambling to reach people who have been stranded for days on their rooftops following two typhoons in a week.

The authorities are still trying to evacuate people amid a threat of further flash floods and landslides in the aftermath of typhoon Nalgae.

At least 52 people were killed and thousands made homeless after Typhoon Nesat hit the country on Tuesday.

Nalgae has followed the same route, killing at least three people.

The death toll is expected to rise following Nalgae's six-hour rampage on Saturday across areas of the main Luzon island already waterlogged by Nesat.

Nalgae has now moved into the South China Sea and is heading towards southern China with winds of 81mph (130k/ph) and gusts of 99mph (160k/ph).

'Big problem'

Hundreds of residents in the farming town of Calumpit, north of Manila, have spent four days on the roofs of their homes to escape the rising flood waters - running short of food and water.

Rescue workers on rubber boats could not reach them because of narrow alleyways, and two air force helicopters were deployed to drop water and food packs to the marooned villagers, the Associated Press reports.

"We have a very big problem here," Calumpit Mayor James de Jesus told ABS-CBN TV network. "We're facing a long flooding".

Benito Ramos, of the Office of Civil Defense, was inspecting the situation in the town, and warned that more water - flowing down from the nearby Cordillera mountain range - could exacerbate the problem.

He called on anyone "refusing to leave their homes, to let the authorities evacuate them".

Nalgae made landfall in the eastern province of Isabela on Saturday. At its strongest it was packing winds of up to 195km/h (121mph).

It followed the same route as Nesat, which had already affected more than 2.4 million people.

More than a million people had moved into evacuated centres, while others sought refuge at the homes of relatives and friends. Thousands were reportedly trapped on the roofs of their homes as Nesat barrelled across the island.

Provincial disaster official Raul Agustin told ABS-CBN television that marooned flood victims were often reluctant to leave for fear their homes would be looted.

"When we send out rescue teams to help them, they ask for food instead," he said.

The Philippines suffers frequent typhoons, about 20 a year.

In pictures: Typhoon Nalgae hits Philippines

Hundreds freed after New York Wall Street protest

Protester Michael Pellagatti holds up the plastic handcuffs used to restrain him and the court summons he was issued

Police in New York City have freed most of the more than 700 people arrested on Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday during a protest against corporate greed.

Fewer than 20 protesters are still held as they are yet to be identified.

Most of those freed were given citations for disorderly conduct and a criminal court summons.

The Occupy Wall Street group, camped in Manhattan's financial district for two weeks, says it will continue its demonstrations.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department told the BBC the small group still detained were expected to appear at the Manhattan criminal court on Sunday.

'Multiple warnings'

The arrests took place on Saturday after protesters carried out an impromptu walk over the East River to Brooklyn.

Some demonstrators carried slogans reading "End the Fed" and "Pepper spray Goldman Sachs".

Police said the protesters were given "multiple warnings" to keep to the pedestrian walkway but spread to the road, halting bridge traffic for several hours.

Some protesters accused the police of not issuing warnings or of tricking them on to the roadway, accusations the police denied.

Demonstrator Henry-James Ferry: "'The police moved in with orange mesh barricade". Saturday footage courtesy Robert Cammiso

Occupy Wall Street says it will continue its campaign, with meetings on Sunday in Zuccotti Park, the privately owned area of land not far from Wall Street that it has occupied since 17 September.

There will be another march on Wall Street on Wednesday afternoon.

"We are the majority. We are the 99%. And we will no longer be silent," the group said in a statement.

"We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of non-violence to maximise the safety of all participants."

The protesters have had previous run-ins with New York's police.

On Friday, about 2,000 people marched under the Occupy Wall Street banner to New York's police headquarters to protest against arrests and police behaviour.

Some 80 people were arrested during a march on 25 September, mostly for disorderly conduct and blocking traffic, but one person was charged with assaulting a police officer.

A series of other small-scale protests have also sprung up in other US cities in sympathy with the aims of Occupy Wall Street.

Arctic ozone loss at record level

The Arctic ozone hole lay over over populated regions for parts of winter and spring

Ozone loss over the Arctic this year was so severe that for the first time it could be called an "ozone hole" like the Antarctic one, scientists report.

About 20km (13 miles) above the ground, 80% of the ozone was lost, they say.

The cause was an unusually long spell of cold weather at altitude. In cold conditions, the chlorine chemicals that destroy ozone are at their most active.

It is currently impossible to predict if such losses will occur again, the team writes in the journal Nature.

Early data on the scale of Arctic ozone destruction were released in April, but the Nature paper is the first that has fully analysed the data.

"Winter in the Arctic stratosphere is highly variable - some are warm, some are cold," said Michelle Santee from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

"But over the last few decades, the winters that are cold have been getting colder.

"So given that trend and the high variability, we'd anticipate that we'll have other cold ones, and if that happens while chlorine levels are high, we'd anticipate that we'd have severe ozone loss."

Ozone-destroying chemicals originate in substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that came into use late last century in appliances including refrigerators and fire extinguishers.

Their destructive effects were first documented in the Antarctic, which now sees severe ozone depletion in each of its winters.

Their use was progressively restricted and then eliminated by the 1987 Montreal Protocol and its successors.

The ozone layer blocks ultraviolet-B rays from the Sun, which can cause skin cancer and other medical conditions.

Longer, not colder

Winter temperatures in the Arctic stratosphere do not generally fall as low as at the southern end of the world.

No records for low temperature were set this year, but the air remained at its coldest for an unusually long period of time, and covered an unusually large area.

In addition, the polar vortex was stronger than usual. Here, winds circulate around the edge of the Arctic region, somewhat isolating it from the main world weather systems.

"Why [all this] occurred will take years of detailed study," said Dr Santee.

"It was continuously cold from December through April, and that has never happened before in the Arctic in the instrumental record."

The size and position of the ozone hole changed over time, as the vortex moved northwards or southwards over different regions.

Some monitoring stations in northern Europe and Russia recorded enhanced levels of ultraviolet-B penetration, though it is not clear that this posed any risk to human health.

While the Arctic was setting records, the Antarctic ozone hole is relatively stable from year to year.

This year has seen ozone-depleting conditions extending a little later into the southern hemisphere spring than usual - again, as a result of unusual weather conditions.

Chlorine compounds persist for decades in the upper atmosphere, meaning that it will probably be mid-century before the ozone layer is restored to its pre-industrial health.

Ozone destruction takes place within polar stratospheric clouds, with chlorine the main culprit

Violent attack in Nigeria village leaves 19 dead

At least 19 people have been shot or hacked to death in a brutal attack in a village in north-west Nigeria, police say.

Eyewitnesses said about 150 people raided the village of Lingyado, in Zamfara state close to the border with Niger, with guns and machetes.

A police spokesman said it appeared to be a reprisal attack in response to a similar incident in August.

Security forces have been sent to the area to restore order.

Police spokesman Sunusi Amiru said six others were wounded in the attack and were receiving medical attention.

"We are on top of the situation, we are on the trail of the suspects, we have deployed more men to the trouble spots," he told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Nigeria correspondent Jonah Fisher says the victims were attacked as they emerged from their homes.

One witness, speaking from hospital, told the BBC that his house was targeted first, and that he saw both his grand-daughter and daughter-in-law killed.

Libya conflict: Hundreds of residents flee Sirte

The BBC's Jonathan Head reports from a makeshift refuelling station near Sirte

Streams of civilians have been fleeing the Libyan city of Sirte, ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace.

Travelling in vehicles packed with belongings, they have been queuing at checkpoints leading out of the city.

Transitional authority forces say they are observing a truce to encourage the remaining civilians to get out, before launching a final assault.

Sirte is one of two major cities still holding out against the National Transitional Council (NTC) forces.

The whereabouts of Col Gaddafi remain unknown.

Hospital under fire

Scores of cars, buses and trucks piled high with household goods lined up at NTC checkpoints on the outskirts of Sirte all Sunday.

The fleeing residents said the situation in the city had deteriorated to such an extent that there was little food and no water or electricity.

"We couldn't leave our homes because of the shelling; we had to leave the city," Ahmed Hussein, travelling with his wife, mother-in-law and two children, told Associated Press news agency.

An International Red Cross team has been into Sirte and says there is an urgent need for medical aid.

The BBC's Jonathan Head, who is in the area, says that with the exodus picking up, anti-government forces hope they can finally take the town.

Reports suggest that Nato forces are continuing to target the area.

One man, Ali, said he and his family were leaving because "we are caught between Nato bombings and shelling by rebels".

"Nato, in particular, is bombing at random and is often hitting civilian buildings," he told the AFP news agency.

NTC fighter Masoud Jema al-Amari, told AFP that Nato had asked them to pull out of the village where Col Gaddafi was born - on the southern outskirts of Sirte - so they could launch air strikes.

Imam Mahmoud Hammoud al-Kaleni, who was leaving the village with his family, said anti-Gaddafi forces had told them they had to urgently leave.

"They came to our house and told us we had one hour to leave. They told us it was safe to leave," he said.

'Oxygen shortage'

The Geneva-based ICRC says nearly 10,000 people have now left Sirte, with at least a third setting up camp in desert areas just a few kilometres from the city not wishing to travel too far from their homes.

Continue reading the main story

In pictures: Civilians flee Sirte

It says that in Sirte itself, people are dying in the main hospital because of a shortage of oxygen and fuel.

An ICRC team was given security clearance from both sides to cross checkpoints and visit the city's Ibn Sima hospital on Saturday.

"The hospital is facing a huge influx of patients, medical supplies are running out and there is a desperate need for oxygen. On top of that, the water reservoir has been damaged," the ICRC said in a statement.

The team was able to pass through the front lines and deliver medical equipment.

However, they could not visit wounded people on the wards as the hospital came under fire.

"Several rockets landed within the hospital buildings while we were there," the leader of the ICRC team, Hichem Khadhraoui, told AFP.

"We saw a lot of indiscriminate fire. I don't know where it was coming from," Mr Khadhraoui said.

Gaddafi loyalists have been putting up stiff resistance in Sirte since NTC troops began their assault several weeks ago.

Bani Walid is the only other remaining centre of resistance against NTC forces.

Fareed's Take: Obama should declare a jobs emergency

America's jobs crisis persists and there often seems to be little we can do about it. But there is one area where government can create jobs - even if consumers aren't spending and businesses aren't hiring - and in a way that is productive for long-term growth: Rebuilding America. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that America's crumbling infrastructure needs $2 trillion worth of repairs, upgrades and expansions. With needs on that scale, President Obama's infrastructure proposals are at 1/20 the size of the problem. We need a big plan and a grand bargain between left and right to get it.

The first element of the bargain would be funding. Already, there are several good proposals for infrastructure banks. Relatively small public investments can be leveraged to attract much larger sums of private capital. Compared with other nations, the United States has astonishingly little private-sector involvement in the building of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and highways. With interest rates at historic lows, borrowing $200 billion by issuing 30 or 50 year bonds to rebuild America would add just a few billion a year to the deficit.

Then you need to actually build it. Obama said he was surprised that there are so few shovel-ready projects. Well, the regulations, reviews and permits required to approve infrastructure ensures that any major project takes years, often decades, to be shovel-ready. In fact, one study of a set of infrastructure projects found that, of all countries examined, the United States has the highest proportion of projects stuck at the "pre-approval stage" - announced but still 3 to 10 years from construction. This is more than 3.5 times the number of such projects, by value, in Europe.

President Obama should announce a national jobs emergency. Infrastructure projects listed under this rubric should be fast-tracked through the environmental review process, with approvals granted within 60 days. Additionally, the requirement that people have to be paid union wages should be suspended, so that skilled and unskilled workers can be hired. In return for these exemptions, Democrats should seek $200 billion in capital for the new infrastructure banks, which could easily attract private capital of hundreds of billions within weeks.

There is really no debate about the need to invest in America's infrastructure. The conservative-leaning Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report in 2006 noting that U.S. productivity and living standards were declining as a consequence of neglect. It urged federal involvement and investment, pointing out that "creating infrastructure assets with long-lived benefits should not be determined by short-term cash availability." It also noted: "Federal deficits sap our economic growth, and must inevitably be paid. But failing to support long-term growth could prove even more vexing.... By whatever means, it is imperative that we make new investments."

Of the 2012 presidential candidates, just one was a signatory to that report on "Guiding Principles for Strengthening America's Infrastructure." So, I look forward to hearing a full-throated case for infrastructure spending during the campaign from that person: Rick Perry.